Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) Part IV: Governance
In the previous blog posts, we discussed and elaborated on how the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework’s business and people perspectives helps in guiding organizations on how to use AWS Cloud to accelerate their business achievements and benefited with digital transformation outcomes.
As a continuation of the series, this post will elaborate and highlight the different ways in which cloud governance plays an essential role in the cloud adoption. IT governance is an important aspects of ensuring “the effective and efficient use of IT in enabling an organization to achieve its goals.” An effectively design governance strategy, could lead to a streamlined process of achieving IT investments with measurable benefits to the organization.
AWS CAF governance perspective outlined seven capabilities as shown below:
Migrating to the AWS Cloud could be a complex project especially for organizations that are embarking on this journey for the first time. To alleviate this, having a program and project management team could assist in coordinating the different organization teams involves in the cloud transformation initiatives. A program and project management group can quickly align the various teams in managing the interdependencies of the Cloud Adoption initiatives. A program and project management team will ensure that the business benefits associated with an organization cloud investments are realized.
One of the key benefits for organizations to adopt the AWS Cloud is the ability to save on cost related to capital expenditures (CapEx). Because of the cloud on-demand self-service and rapid elasticity characteristics, organization’s users, who may at times be inexperienced, could provision cloud resources without proper planning resulting to high and unnecessary cost. AWS CAF recommends for organizations to plan, measure, and optimize cloud spend by putting structures in place for cloud spend financial accountability. AWS provides multiple mechanisms for organization to control AWS Cloud spend, such as, having a tagging strategy and accounts structure that aligns with organization business objectives. Organizations should also make use of the AWS Well-Architected framework and consolidation of software licenses between cloud and on-premise deployments.
Maintaining the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data is one of the characteristics of data security. One of the questions often asked by organizations considering migrating to the AWS Cloud is if their data will be secure and safe. Incorporating data governance as part of cloud adoption would allow organizations to exercise authority and control over their data in the AWS cloud. As part of its data governance strategy, organizations should classify their data and define data owners and custodians.
Learn more about AWS Cloud Adoption Framework
AWS Cloud Adoption Framework — overview
Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) Part II: Making a Business Case
